June 16, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1429

KARACHI, June 15: Praising the lawyers and the masses over their active participation in the long march, retired Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim said that the recently concluded march had proved that the nation was still awake and would not accept any provisional constitution order (PCO).

He was speaking at the second Zamir Niazi Memorial Lecture organised by Pen and Art for Peace in coordination with the Progressive Writers’ Association Pakistan, which was held at the auditorium of the Jinnah Medical and Dental College on Saturday evening.

Dr Manzoor Ahmed presided over the event while Rahat Saeed and Beena Sarwar informed the audience about the purpose of organising the event.

Zohra Yousuf highlighted the various achievements of Justice Ebrahim. Drawing parallels between Mr Ebrahim and Zamir Niazi, she said both personalities had courage and modesty in common.Justice Ebrahim said that there had been funds established for the long march but only one-third of these were utilized. “Everything was done on a voluntarily basis and hardly anyone asked for money,” he said.

Coming to the issue of the judiciary, he cited the example of India where there are 26 high court judges for only 22 high courts. “I do not understand what 29 judges will do in the only five high courts that we have,” he said.

He said the government was trying to come up with two Supreme Courts – one for constitutional affairs and the other for matters pertaining to the interest of the masses.

The retired justice said that he had made a number of mistakes in his life, but the one he regretted the most was accepting the role of law minister under former president Farooq Leghari’s tenure.

He said if there was anything he could change about his past, it would be his decision of accepting the ministry.

Mr Ebrahim was of the view that instead of spending more on education and health, huge amounts were earmarked for defence in the budget.

“During the last 30 years, Rs178.3 billion had been spent on education and Rs98 billion on health while on the other hand around Rs2,835 billion had been consumed on defence alone,” he said.

He remarked in jest that while listening to his achievements as highlighted by the earlier speaker, he came to realize that he had grown so old.

“No man is born a genius or great. Every man is a creature of circumstances,” he said in response to him being called an extraordinary personality in the introductory remarks.

“I never knew what I wanted to do and after getting a masters degree in international relations, the University of Karachi rejected me in an interview for a lecturer’s job considering my short stature and weight, which was 90 pounds,” he laughed.

However, he said that had he been selected for the position at the KU, he would not have been standing here sharing his experiences. “I met some of the most amazing personalities like Hasan Nasir, Z.A. Sulehri, Hussain Shaheed Suharwardi and others during my exciting career and that is what groomed me and educated me,” he said.

Earlier, paying tribute to Zamir Niazi, Beena Sarwar said Mr Niazi as a person was a perfect blend of courage and humility. “He was nominated for the prestigious President’s Pride of Performance Award by the government along with Rs50,000 cash prize; he plainly refused to accept the award,” she said.

Ms Sarwar said that instead, Mr Niazi wrote a very intrepid letter to the then president of Pakistan saying that he would never accept anything from a government that had imposed a ban on five newspapers of the country.

The books penned by Niazi – two published and one incomplete – could easily be termed as national assets, she said.